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<h1><a href="https://archiveofourown.org/works/26040190">All Your Ever Afters</a> by <a class='authorlink' href='https://archiveofourown.org/users/savanting/pseuds/savanting'>savanting</a></h1>

<table class="full">

<tr><td><b>Category:</b></td><td>Descendants (Disney Movies)</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Genre:</b></td><td>F/M, Fluff, One Shot, Post-Descendants (2015), Short One Shot, disney what have you done to me, how did I get caught up in such a cute ship, sugary sweetness ahoy</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Language:</b></td><td>English</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Status:</b></td><td>Completed</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Published:</b></td><td>2020-08-22</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Updated:</b></td><td>2020-08-22</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Packaged:</b></td><td>2021-05-06 08:40:25</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Rating:</b></td><td>General Audiences</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Warnings:</b></td><td>No Archive Warnings Apply</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Chapters:</b></td><td>1</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Words:</b></td><td>1,073</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Publisher:</b></td><td>archiveofourown.org</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Story URL:</b></td><td>https://archiveofourown.org/works/26040190</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Author URL:</b></td><td>https://archiveofourown.org/users/savanting/pseuds/savanting</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Summary:</b></td><td><div class="userstuff">
              <p>Ben’s the son of a beauty and a beast, but that doesn’t mean he’s an expert on love or dating. Or this girl with eyes that steal his breath away. One-Shot.</p>
            </div></td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Relationships:</b></td><td>Ben/Mal (Disney: Descendants)</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Comments:</b></td><td>2</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Kudos:</b></td><td>71</td></tr>

</table>

<a name="section0001"><h2>All Your Ever Afters</h2></a>
<div class="story"><div class="fff_chapter_notes fff_head_notes"><b>Author's Note:</b><blockquote class="userstuff">
      <p>I don’t own any Disney properties. Imagine if Descendants 2 didn’t exist because Ben and Mal actually have healthy communication going about her discomfort over his royal standing and her...less than squeaky past. Oh, and there’s some cute sass. (If I’m honest, this fic is JUST cute sass.) Enjoy!!</p>
    </blockquote></div><div class="userstuff module">
    
    <p>Whatever Ben had thought <i>love</i> would be like, he hadn’t imagined every time he looked at the girl of his dreams that he would feel like he couldn’t breathe. It was a strange occurrence, especially since all manner of girl — pretty or plain — had never made him feel that peculiar sensation. It was quite...intolerable, if he were honest.</p><p>His father had never explained such a thing when Ben had gotten the talk of the birds and the bees. The king-who-had-been-beast had been too keen on sharing how to get rid of hairballs after puberty and how to avoid howling during mating season. (Yes, it had been <i>that</i> manner of talk.)</p><p>But looking at Mal...Ben would not have been surprised if she had used her spell book to reach inside his chest and grasp his beating heart. One glimpse from those too-knowing green eyes sucked all the breath out of him. She was muse and mischief, the kind of girl who would have inspired paintings and ballads and maybe even wars in a past age. He wasn’t the type to jot down poetry, but maybe that was for the best: his mother had been the wordsmith while his father...well, he had had a penchant for chewing apart pencils once upon a time.</p><p>“Ben, you’re doing it again,” came a coy voice that made his heart stutter. He snapped to attention, realizing Mal — the real, live, flesh-and-blood incarnation who existed outside his fantasies and musings — was staring at him, her smile growing wider by the moment. He felt his face grow warm immediately, very unkingly of him, and he leaned back out of habit. That was another thing: he felt like Mal drew him into her own orbit with just a look, as if she had some kind of gravitational pull over him. It would have been annoying with any other girl, but this was Mal. She wasn’t the princess on his arm, but a companion on his adventures.</p><p>“Um, what?“ he asked, wanting to kick himself immediately as soon as the stupid words were out of his mouth. Yet more <i>unkingly behavior</i>. Lumiere would not like to hear that his lessons on flirtation had gone to waste. But maybe there wasn’t a wrong answer, since Mal’s eyes danced to see him in such a state. His blush seemed like a small humiliation to pay to see her enjoying herself so much — at his expense, true, but it was rare to see her so in her element these days. It hadn’t been the easiest adjustment, becoming a newly crowned king’s girlfriend.</p><p>“You look so intense, like you want to eat me or something,” she said, face straight, and he balked.</p><p>“I do not!” he protested, feeling his face flame further. And then she laughed, a near guffaw, as he fought to maintain his gentlemanly demeanor. Eating, indeed, like he was one of those goons who looked at her like a snack they wanted to try! “Mal, really now—“</p><p>“Okay, okay, maybe I was stretching the truth a <i>tiny</i> bit,” she said, her giggles subsiding. Then she reached out and touched the back of his hand. She began rubbing circles into his skin, and Ben imagined if he had been a cat he might have begun purring. “But, really, you look so lost in thought nowadays. What happened to your quizzes for us to get to know each other better?”</p><p>That had been his mother’s idea, always one for practicality. <i>You chose this girl to stand beside you; now you have to see if you’re compatible for the long term.</i> His mother may have fallen in love with a beast with temper flares, but that didn’t mean she wanted the same kind of tremulous fate for her son. And that meant dating wasn’t just fun and games. Besides, did he really want to kiss and — and — do <i>other things</i> with a girl who was his complete opposite?</p><p>Even Ben could be fooled by a smile alone. And even he wasn’t immune to disappointment — or heartbreak.</p><p>He smiled, but suddenly it felt forced. “I was just...overthinking, I guess,” he said, flipping his hand and tangling his fingers with hers. “Wondering if maybe this was too much for you. I grew up with this life, but sometimes I forget that you didn’t. Balls, gowns, court politics — it must seem like another world.”</p><p>Mal was quiet for a long moment. “But it’s <i>your</i> life, Ben. And, no matter how I feel about all the pageantry, I want to be a part of that life, ups and downs and all.” Then she snorted out of the blue, a very <i>unprincesslike</i> gesture that he was becoming all too familiar with. But it succeeded in making him smile too. A real smile that felt easy and true. “Sorry, that was really corny, wasn’t it?”</p><p>“Lucky for you I aced Corny Declarations 101 my freshman year,” he said, and Mal’s smile widened like she was in on a secret he had told.</p><p>“Is that on the curriculum?” she asked in a fake-whisper full of mock worry. “Oh no, do you think I’ll pass the advanced course?”</p><p>“If you have me as your tutor, you will,” he said, encouraging her whimsy and wit because she enjoyed it and so did he. Even without quizzes that would detail their deepest and darkest secrets, <i>this</i> was where their real selves played. And he would always be her jester if that meant he could have another glimpse of that smile, another peal of that laughter.</p><p>“Okay, then,” Mal replied. “What’s the first lesson, O wise one?”</p><p>Ben bit back his grin. If only he were braver, he might have captured her smile against his mouth and eaten up her delight. But that was for another time. They hopefully had all the time in the world, all the ever afters to explore. “Just be here, in the moment, always being yourself.”</p><p>Mal’s green eyes gleamed with a light like the spark right before a spell. “I think I can do that.”</p><p><i>I hope I can too.</i> But all Ben did was squeeze her hand, not ready to speak aloud the wishes that might have scared her away — for, if fairy tales had taught him anything, it was that timing mattered above all else. So for today he kept his own declarations locked behind his lips and just basked in the magic of her smile.</p>
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